Phils Can't Win With Lidge As The Closer
This is a partial reprint from an earlier blog on July 26th updated halfway across the country that still applies.
LAS VEGAS-The Phillies can have all the Roy Oswalts, all the Roy Halladays and all the Cole Hamels they want. Having arguably the best three starters in baseball doesn't seem to have changed anything if they can't finish. Is Charlie Manuel willing to go all Billy Martin (who ruined his 1980 starters, who threw a combined 93 complete games that season) by taxing the arms of Oswalt, Halladay and Hamels until they have nothing left in October? Sitting halfway across the country, I'll be coming back home to a skittish city that I left last week filled with the delirium of children at recess over the Oswalt acquisition. Better hand that World Series trophy over to the Phillies now. That seemed to be the overwhelming sentiment from downright giddy fans and media alike when the trade was finalized on Thursday.
Don't let the trade fool you. The first two games of the Washington series is proof of that. Oswalt flopped in his first start as a Phillie. The Phillies had climbed back into contention by feasting on sub par clubs that liked to kick the ball around in the outfield and didn't do the most fundamental of things like covering home plate on errant pitches with a runner on third. So be it. The Phillies swept the sinking Colorado Rockies in four games. Then trampled over the lowly Arizona Diamondbacks. So what? It should be noted that Colorado and Arizona are a combined 8-21 since the All-Star break (as of July 31).
Yes, the Phillies have gotten within a sniff of the Atlanta Braves. But that one lingering weeping wound won't go away. It's actually festered. It's buzzed around this team the last two years without even a hint of being questioned by management. Here's the thought that should make everyone who's witnessed Saturday night's Washington implosion edgy: Nothing is safe with Brad Lidge on the mound. No one in the Phillies' organization seems to get that through their thick, collective skulls. The old prevailing thought was once the Phils got a lead, regardless of how large or small, old "Lights Out" Lidge would hold it down and get it done. Not anymore. Those days are gone. Finite. His 2009 season was a disaster and this season doesn't look any more promising. In fact, it looks like it's getting worse.
While Ruben Amaro adroitly bamboozled the Houston Astros out of getting Oswalt, he apparently forgot one thing: HE HAS NO CLOSER! You really can't shout that loud enough.
In 2008, it was easy. Lidge was the Perfect Man. Mr. 48-for-48. You knew the winning cocktail. Lidge was the key. Build a lead, call the 'pen, here comes Lights Out to slam it down and save the day. Someone needs to shake the few diehard Phillies fans out there if they think that Lidge still exists. It's over. It's easy to understand Manuel's loyalty to the man probably most responsible for him having a World Series championship ring and the Phils snaring their second championship in franchise history.
But you don't have to be a baseball expert, nor a professional baseball coach to see what's been happening in the ninth inning. Lidge blew another save opportunity Saturday night in Washington. This came when last Sunday, he threw a 30-pitch, white-knuckled, tension-filled ninth before the escape. Then last Monday, in the series finale against sinking Colorado, it was a 34-pitch nail-biter that Lidge also slithered free of. How much slithering can one closer do? Apparently, Lidge has made it an art form this season.
You pay your ticket money to see excitement. Do you want to see that kind of excitement? The fact is this team is one Brad Lidge two-out, late-September three-run, ninth-inning homer from blowing it all. Just close your eyes. You can imagine it happening. Tell us when you begin feeling comfortable when Lidge unlocks that bullpen gate and comes charging out? Do you really think he'll come out of a ninth inning unscathed? He's bases loaded, one-out situation waiting to happen. How that's stomach? All in knots? The Phillies should hand out "Lights Out" antacid tablets each time Lidge pitches.
How much more thankful should the Phillies be to Lidge? His 2008 debt of thanks has been paid in full–and then some, with a new contract, and a iron-clad belief from Manuel that Lidge will continue being "The Man" out of the pen.
You don't need to have 30-plus years of baseball knowledge to see this arrangement that worked two years ago has grown bitterly stale. But like Lidge said, the Phils kept on winning. Guess what? They're not winning now. And continue believing in Lidge.
There's no changing it. As the Phils lurch into August behind Atlanta, how much longer will that belief endure as the Phillies are one imminent Brad Lidge fastball from being taken deep for a three-run, ninth-inning blast that wrecks everything? That's enough to make anyone feel queasy. How much longer can the Phillies trot out Brad Lidge?
Instant drama. Instant gratification–that's if he can get the last out.
